MEMORABILIA. COLLECTING SOUNDS WITH…
Conversation with Mark Gergis on his sound collection
Linked to record label Sublime Frequencies, Mark Gergis is an expert in popular and folk music from Syria, Iraq, Cambodia and Thailand, spanning from the mid-twentieth century to the present. This conversation offers some of his cultural, logistic and esoteric reflections on collecting music in the Middle East and South East Asia, the importance of format, the relevance of collecting objects from other cultures, as well as other sociological aspects relating to the practice of music collecting in developing countries.
MEMORABILIA. COLLECTING SOUNDS WITH… is a new series that seeks to break through to unearth and reveal private collections of music and sound memorabilia. The documentary series is a historiography of sound collecting that reveals the unseen and passionate work of the amateur collector while reconstructing multiple parallel histories such as the evolution of recording formats, archival issues, the sound collecting market and the evolution of musical styles beyond the marketplace.
Radio Maghreb
In this project Alan Bishop vindicates the use of radio as an electronic instrument in a journey through time and space that unearths old recordings from the AM and FM airwaves made during his first trip to Spain and Morocco in 1983.
Sublime Frequencies
Mark Gergis, a regular collaborator with Sublime Frequencies, explains the project's philosophy and the cultural, logistical and esoteric implications of collecting music from a culture other than one's own.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with sound collector Mark Gergis that we were unable to include the first time around.
Mark Gergis. Part II
Mark Gergis. Part I
Over the past twenty years, this North American of Iraqi origins has immersed himself in popular and folk music scenes and subgenres from Syria, Iraq, Sumatra, Cambodia, Thailand and other places, in order to rescue what he calls "sound anomalies" from oblivion.